Chelsea may be grabbing all the headlines with its impressive 12-match winning streak in the English Premier League, but that’s nothing compared to a team across the border in Wales.
The New Saints FC notched a 26th consecutive win in the Welsh Premier League on Monday to equal the world record by set Dutch giant Ajax during 1971-72 Eredivisie season.
The four-time European champion tweeted its congratulations to the Welsh side, which cruised to a 4-0 victory over Cefn Druids in front of a home crowd.
“It’s been a bit of a shock that we’ve got to this stage,” club chairman Mike Harris told CNN’s World Sport show Tuesday.
“We’d recognized that we’d got to the longest run of games in our league a few weeks ago when we passed the Bangor City total, but we still thought we had a bit of a way to go.”
Harris and the club were only made aware of the feat when the Guinness Book of Records got in touch before the crucial match on Boxing Day.
“That got everyone a little bit on edge, but obviously the game went in our favor so we managed to get over that last hurdle,” Harris said.
“I think the players are a great set of players and you’ve also got to give great testimony to our manager Craig Harrison, who is very professional in the way that he treats every single game, every training session and in his selection of players he’s put together over the last few years.”
Harrison’s team has emulated an Ajax side that, featuring the great Johan Cruyff, went on to complete the treble in 1972 by winning the Eredivisie, the Dutch Cup and the European Cup — the precursor to today’s Champions League.
TNS, by comparison, has never made it past the qualifying rounds of the continent’s top club competition in 10 attempts.
Now 21 points clear at the top of the 12-team Welsh Premier League, the team can break the world record when it plays second-bottom Cefn Druids again on Friday.
“There’s a lot of hard work going on in the Welsh Premier League,” said Harris, whose team has won the title for the past five seasons.
“It’s a very young league compared to the more established leagues in Europe, but the clubs have worked really, really hard over the last 20 years to keep pushing forward.
“It’s nice to get some recognition for all the hard work that’s gone on over that time.”
